


Road's End

by Safir



Category: The Road Within (2014)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Multi, OT3, Queerplatonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-08
Updated: 2015-11-08
Packaged: 2018-04-30 14:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5168045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Safir/pseuds/Safir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(CWs: eating disorders, involuntary hospitalization, vulgar and bigoted language, neurotypical attempting to write mental illness)</p><p>Vincent and Alex support Marie through her stay in the hospital, and use the downtime to figure out how to be together when they're not fleeing parents or the law.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Road's End

I'm going to be writing straight into AO3 because reasons. Sorry!

-

Vincent and Alex spent the rest of the first day exploring the Santa Cruz beachfront, reveling in their newfound freedom. Well, they technically had freedom before, when they were making their way across the country in defiance of their parents and doctors, but it felt different now that they weren't fleeing anything. Quieter. Better.

Alex had just been thinking that it was rather nice that Marie wasn't there either, when Vincent asked: "Could you come with me to see Marie tomorrow?"

Alex stops in the middle of the crowded boardwalk to stare at Vincent in disbelief. "She's _your_ girlfriend. Or fuckbuddy? I don't even know. As much as I loved third wheeling you two this past week, no."

"It's just-- FUCK--" Vincent's arms jerked in close to himself, hands slapping against his chest. "just, the last time I talked to her, I sort of walked out while she was crying and SHIT-- asking me to stay." 

Vincent's twitching was beginning to draw odd looks from the crowd passing around them, so Alex starts walking again. "One, that's your fault. Two, I don't know what you think _I_ could do about that."   

Vincent places a hand on Alex's shoulder, causing Alex to jump away, but also to turn and look at him. "Just. Be there for me?"

It was really unfair what those green eyes could do with the warm sunset light, Alex thought. "Fine," he groans, walking away this time with determination. 

-

"Surprise!" says Vincent as he crosses the threshold into the small hospital room. "We're staying after all." 

Marie still looks small and frail inside the stiff, voluminous fabric of her hospital gown, but Vincent suspects that she has a bit more color in her cheeks today. She brightens briefly upon seeing Alex, and she straightens against her restraints. "Oh, you're both here! Great, when do we leave?"

Vincent's chin tics to the left guiltily, one hand flying up in front of his face. "Er, we're not. Breaking you out, that is." The clarification is punctuated with an expletive spat into his hand. 

She falls back in the hospital bed, fixing Alex with a glare. "Why are you here, then?"

Alex twists his hands- still in gloves, despite the sterile environment- and shrugs. "Dr. Rose's car has crumbs in it." 

"LIAR-" blurts Vincent, who then wrests control of his voice back with a scrunch of his face. "The point is, we're not leaving you. We'll be here the whole time you're in the hospital."

"But you're going to let them keep me here," she sighs, turning away. "Some help you are."

"Ugh, you're so dramatic," interjects Alex, moving closer to the hospital bed. "So we don't want you to die. It turns out you're marginally easier to deal with than the skeleton army you'd raise in hell once you got there."

That manages to surprise a laugh out of Marie. "Wow, fuck you! When I'm a skeleton warlord, and I'm coming for you first!" 

Vincent flashes Alex a dazzling smile, then leans in to place his hands on Marie's shoulders. "Yep, purely selfish motivations here." He brushes a kiss against her forehead. "Guess you've got no choice but to survive."

She leans her head towards Vincent, unable to do much more due to her restraints. "I saw my parents last night."

"Oh?" Vincent straightens with another jerk of his chin, out of his depth once more. "Er... how were they?"

"Same as always, I guess," says Marie, her expression dark. "They want to put me in another institution. With better security."

Alex stills, and Vincent's hands spasm as he barks out a chain of expletives. "But we just got free," Alex murmurs, barely audible under Vincent's compulsive shouting. Marie smiles sadly at Alex, and something aches a little in his chest. 

"We'll talk to-- COCKSUCKERS-- your parents," decides Vincent, bracing his hands on the railing of Marie's hospital bed. Alex nods seriously, but that just makes Marie laugh again. 

"Captain Spaz and Scrubbin' Bubbles, here to save the day. I appreciate the thought, I guess." She grins crookedly. "For what it's worth, we've got a way better chance of busting out of here than getting my parents to like you..." 

At this, Vincent looks conflicted, but the idea of yet another haphazard, sloppy, inevitably _unsanitary_ escape brings panic bubbling up in Alex's stomach. " _No_." He clears his throat, brushing imaginary dirt from his shirt. "I mean... Couldn't we meet them first?" **  
**

Marie rolls her eyes. "It's your funeral. And mine, but hey, do your thing."

Alex claps his hands together, drawing both pairs of eyes to him. "Okay, that's settled. Now, I'm going to leave the room so you two can exchange saliva-borne pathogens, or whatever disgusting personal health hazard you feel like engaging in today. Far away from me." _  
_

"Jealousy is unsightly," retorts Marie as Alex leaves, the remark clinging to him like a greasy film. 

-

Vincent is worried that the room might turn awkward when Alex has left, but Marie is still smiling when she turns her attention back to him. "I'm glad you're still here," she confesses, her eyes dropping.

"Of course." He places a hand in hers and interlaces their fingers, then leans down to press a kiss against her lips, soft but dry against his. "I love you, after all."

She flinches at that, feeling as ever the inherent pressure for the scripted reply. "You were going to leave," she says instead, pulling her hand away. 

"I didn't, though." His hands fly his jaw as his head tics to the right. "And now we're both here, and I won't let any-- SHITFUCK-- anyone split the three of us up."

"... I wonder," Marie said, tilting her head. "Would you have broken me out if I _didn't_ say we'd leave Alex behind?"

Vincent forces his head straight, face still scrunched, and looks back at Marie. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Marie shrugs. "Apparently nothing. Forget I asked." 

"Okay then." Vincent tugs the guest chair up next to Marie's hospital bed. Though his Tourette's impairs his life in many ways, it does not at all impede his capacity to interpret body language, and it's obvious- from now, and from the last time he said it- that a certain three-word phrase is the surefire way to guarantee Marie would not be up for any variety of pathogen exchange. So instead, he pulls out his phone. "Wanna see the photos we took yesterday?"

-

By the time Vincent meets up with Alex again in the waiting area, it is noon, and Vincent looks so pleased that Alex can practically picture the new germs crawling over his friend's face. And hands. And maybe-- he  _really_ didn't need to pursue this train of thought. He's just about to complain, but Vincent starts talking first. 

"You were-- FUCK-- fucking perfect today. Thanks, man, I owe ya." The comment, combined with the full force of Vincent's smile, wipes all traces of dissatisfaction from Alex's mind. 

Which, of course, only annoyed him all over again. "I didn't even do anything," he says gruffly, as they begin heading towards the hospital exit. 

"Marie went from drafting us into her escape plans to letting us meet her parents," Vincent responds, his face twisting briefly. "That's not nothing."

Alex isn't sure what to say to that, so they ride the elevator in silence.

"What's up with you and her, anyways? You kept warning me about her like you know her somehow." 

Alex hunches his shoulders up defensively as they pass through the (thankfully automatic) front doors of the hospital. "We used to be friends. And then we weren't."

"What the fuck, man." Vincent twists his hands against his face, making a high-pitched noise of frustration. "Marie said something just as cryptic. Come on, I was counting on getting the rest of it out of you." 

"Buy me Subway. You both still owe me from the trip."

"Sure," Vincent shrugs, "I'll cover Marie's part, too. But talk."

Alex sighs, looking around. "Nothing even really happened... but let's sit down first."

Nothing, but Alex still didn't want to talk about it in public? "Alright."

-

Alex has managed to stall until after they both finished their lunches. He's made sure to sit across from Vincent, rather than next to him- Vincent hasn't spat food on him since that one day in the treatment program, but that wasn't exactly a forgettable moment, especially for someone like Alex. The yellow afternoon light slants across their table, leaving Vincent in shadow but warming Alex uncomfortably. He fiddles with his sandwich wrapper, which is folded neatly so as to trap in any remaining crumbs. "Well?" Vincent prompts. After a pause, Alex begins.

"Marie was already at Dr. Rose's facility when I joined. I only noticed her because her hair was purple," Alex ignores a compulsive, happy chirrup from Vincent, "but I stayed in my own room pretty much all day. I only left for food, or for my sessions with Dr. Rose."  


Vincent snorts at this. "That's hardly different from now," he remarks, but concedes when Alex gestures emphatically to their current surroundings. "Anyways, you were saying?"

"I didn't know anybody at the clinic, then. But then Marie started visiting me. I still don't know why. It was--" Alex shudders at the memory-- "horrible, at first. She'd just let herself in, wouldn't take off her shoes,  _touched_ everything." He frowns. "I'm not sure when it started to be okay. She always came by at the same time in the morning, so I could just clean up after she left. She'd also sit with me at lunch. She might not have been eating her food, but at least it wasn't on me instead." Vincent rolls his eyes at that.

"Well, it sounds great so far. So what happened?"

"Umm... well, one day, she kissed me on the cheek. I kicked her out of my room and spent the rest of the morning washing my face." He paused. "She... didn't come back again. Ever." 

"And you... didn't go look for her or anything?"

Alex frowned, confused. "She was always the one to come to me. I--" he's cut off by 


End file.
